The field of the present invention relates to correlating or targeting actions or activities pertaining to multiple associated devices, including two or more online devices (such as desktop computers, portable computers, game consoles, mobile phones or smartphones; referred to herein as ODs) and possibly including a set-top box (referred to herein as a STB).
It is common for a single household to have multiple users that consume media content or access online content. It is conventional to collect profile information for each user. The items of profile information can arise from online sources or offline sources, and each item may or may not include or be linked to personally identifiable information (PII) for the user. Typically those items of profile information that are not associated with PII would be collected in a separate profile that would not be recognized as belonging to a specific, identified user, but instead would be linked to a device identifier. It is conventional to select targeted advertising based on user profile information and to present that targeted advertising during presentation of media content. In a multiple-user household, there is often a choice to be made among different advertisements targeted based on different user profiles. Choosing the most appropriate advertisement to present at a given time can be problematic, e.g., an advertisement selected based on profile information of a first user might be presented while media content is consumed by a second user.
It is therefore desirable to solve the technical problem of using a suitable user profile, among multiple user profiles associated with a single household or location, to select a targeted advertisement for presentation during or within specific presented media content.